This invention relates in general to equipment for facilitating the access of disabled people and children""s pushchairs aboard motor vehicles, i.e. public transport vehicles, or more simply to fixed installations, such as public buildings, museums and similar.
Specifically, this invention relates to a lifting device for disabled people in wheelchairs, intended to be permanently applied to a vehicle or to a fixed installation, to overcome the difference in level between a lower station and an upper station, for accessing said vehicle or said fixed installation.
The purpose of this invention is to provide a lifting device of this type which can be fully folded away, i.e. which is included in the volume of the vehicle, or of the fixed installation, to which it is applied, until its use is required.
An additional purpose of this invention is to provide a particularly functional foldaway lifting device, which conformation is relatively simple and cost-effective, and which does not employ fluid actuators.
According to this invention, this purpose is obtained essentially thanks to the fact that the lifting device comprises:
a supporting frame embedded within a housing provided under said upper station of the vehicle or fixed installation,
a sliding foldaway platform, moving between a retracted position and an extracted position, with respect to said supporting frame, and also moving, in said extracted position, between a lowered condition, in which it rests on said lower station, and a raised condition, in which it is substantially arranged on the level of said upper station,
articulated parallelogram linkage means between said platform and said frame, and
electrical actuator control means for moving said platform between said retracted position and said extracted position and, by means of said articulated parallelogram linkage means, between said lowered condition and said raised condition.
According to a preferred embodiment of this invention, said platform is conveniently equipped with a front board, moving between an erected position and a folded position, in which is acts as a front slide for accessing said lower station. Furthermore, the platform can be equipped with a rear extractable extension, sliding over the platform between a retracted position and an extracted position, in which it acts as a rear slide for connecting to the upper station. Electrical actuator means for controlling the movements of said front board and said sliding extension are provided.
The lifting device according to this invention can be advantageously equipped with a remote control device, or magnetic card, or similar, operatively associated to the respective control device for allowing also remote activation by the user.